Mugabe wades into AirZim fiasco

BY PATIENCE NYANGOVE PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has refused to accept Air Zimbabwe, board chairman Jonathan Kadzura’s resignation from the board, The Standard has learnt. Officials who requested to remain anonymous said Mugabe’s refusal to accept Kadzura’s resignation was influenced by a letter written to him by Air Zimbabwe engineers who blamed a senior government official for the airline’s collapse. The engineers accused the official in the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure Development and Communication (name supplied) of fuelling corrupt activities. “Air Zimbabwe engineers wrote to Mugabe notifying him that this senior official, through his corrupt activities, had fuelled the rundown of parastatals like Air Zimbabwe, Net-One and the National Railways of Zimbabwe among others that fall under the ministry. “That is when Mugabe refused to accept Kadzura’s resignation.” Kadzura had resigned early this month as pressure mounted on his board to reverse the decline at the airline. A diplomatic Kadzura on Friday confirmed that his resignation had been rejected. “It’s true my resignation was not recognised by the shareholder,” he said. “The main problem at Air Zimbabwe is undercapitalisation and it continues to be my number one priority to look for a long-standing solution to the problems.” Kadzura, who did not want to say much about the matter, said that although he had not seen the letter written to President Mugabe by the Air Zimbabwe engineers he had heard about it. Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba could not be reached for comment as he is out of the country with his boss. The national carrier, just like most other parastatals, is reeling under a huge debt and recently, local suppliers of A1 Jet reportedly stopped supplies over a US$1, 6 million debt. The airline was to cancel flights as result of the problem. Pilots have also gone on strike twice this year demanding outstanding salaries.